LNG

Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex), which operates the main LNG import terminal in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and has a stake in an LNG receiving terminal in the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong, said it was also planning to expand its shale oil and gas interests in the US.

Marubeni Corp. is pushing forward its LNG import project and power plans in Vietnam with partner Tokyo Gas as it signed an agreement for the first phase of a large regional development project consisting of an industrial park and other facilities in Quang Ninh Province in the bay area northeast of Hanoi.

Tokyo Gas, the Japanese utility and LNG importer, has joined with one of Japan’s main trading houses, Marubeni Corp., to develop a liquefied natural gas and power project in the northeast Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh.

JERA Co Inc., the largest Japanese LNG buyer, said it signed an accord with ExxonMobil and the city government of the Vietnamese port of Haiphong to work together on a potential integrated LNG-to-Power project for the Port.

AES Corp., the US company that was the first to develop an LNG import terminal in the Caribbean, was named by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the latest American corporation to be involved in LNG and power infrastrasture development in Vietnam.

Pompeo told a virtual conference of the Indo-Pacific Business Forum that AES would sign an agreement with PetroVietnam Gas for a $2.8-billion LNG-to-power project in the southeast Asian nation.

AES is an experienced LNG industry participant, having set up LNG imports for the Dominican Republic way back in 2003 with the import facility at Punta Caucedo operated by its subsidiary AES Andres.

“Vietnam has given the green light to AES Corp., a company based in Virginia, to go forward with the project,” stated Pompeo at the online forum.

AES was also behind the debut of Panama as an LNG importer with its Costa Norte project in operation since 2018.

Vietnam is developing four LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.

Vietnamese officials also said after the declaration by Secretary of State Pompeo that Delta Offshore Energy, the Singapore-based company developing an LNG and power project in Bac Lieu province in the Mekong Delta, has moved forward with its plans.

They said that the Bac Lieu province LNG-to-power project had signed preliminary contracts with several US engineering and equipment companies, naming McDermott International and Bechtel Inc. as well as power plant supplier General Electric.

Pompeo said it was a “real win-win” situation for the US and Vietnam as the AES deal and others would also open the door for the supply of billions of dollars of US LNG shipments and investments with Vietnamese and other partners in power infrastructure.

The forum was also attended by Pompeo’s Vietnamese counterpart Pham Binh Minh.

Pompeo made his remarks on an Asian tour, taking in India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia.

Vietnam is building four LNG-to-power plants, with the first to be operational by 2023.

Vietnam said in June 2020 that talks had taken place by telephone between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and ExxonMobil on the development of a power and LNG venture in Haiphong.

Prime Minister Nguyen said at the time that he welcomed ExxonMobil’s willingness to invest in Vietnam in many areas, including natural gas exploration and LNG, petrochemical refining and electricity production from LNG.

The Bac Lieu project of Delta Offshore is the most advanced of the planned Vietnamese LNG terminal build-out and the company said in September 2020 that it had also signed a technology license agreement with Sweden’s Stena Power and LNG Solutions for jetty-less LNG receiving and regasification technology.

A third Vietnamese LNG terminal is envisaged adjacent to a gas-fired power station in Ninh Thuan province, south of Cam Ranh Bay.

The fourth project is at Long An, also on the Mekong Delta, and this will see the development of a 3,000-megawatts power plant as well as an import terminal.

Vietnam is making progress on several liquefied natural gas import projects to support associated power plants and one such venture in Bac Lieu Province in the southern Mekong Delta has signed a technology license agreement with Stena Power and LNG Solutions for jetty-less LNG receiving and regasification technology.

Italian energy company Eni said an exploration well located in Block 114 of the Song Hong Basin offshore Vietnam has confirmed a significant natural gas accumulation, further expanding the potential of the field.

Vietnam is making progress on several liquefied natural gas import projects to support associated power plants and one such venture in Bac Lieu Province in the southern Mekong Delta has been highlighted in a half-yearly Vietnamese report on the economy.

Vietnam said it was in talks with US major ExxonMobil Corp. on the possibility of investing in new projects to develop liquefied natural gas imports for the southeast Asian nation to meet increasing power needs and it was seeking US shipments.

The government in Hanoi issued a statement that Vietnam welcomed ExxonMobil’s interest in the provision of new investment.

It issued the statement after a phone call between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Irtiza Sayyed, President of ExxonMobil LNG Market Development Inc.

“Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed ExxonMobil’s plan to invest in Vietnam in many areas, including natural gas exploration and LNG, petrochemical refining and electricity production from LNG,” said the government.

“The Prime Minister affirmed that ExxonMobil's cooperation is very important, contributing to the joint cooperation between Vietnam and the United States, especially this year to celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries,” it added.

The statement mentioned in particular ExxonMobil possibly investing in the development of the LNG-for-power chain with a capacity of about 3,000 megawatts in Long An in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam.

“For this, ExxonMobil will ensure a continuous supply of LNG directly from the United States and from several other countries. LNG import will contribute to creating a harmonious trade balance between Vietnam and the US,” said the Vietnamese.

The government added that another possible project was the 4,000-MW LNG-for-power plant in the northern port city of Haiphong, adding that this could be completed between 2025 and 2030.

ExxonMobil’s main US LNG export interests are as a shareholder in the Qatar Petroleum-led Golden Pass export project in Texas.

Qatar Petroleum owns 70 percent of the Golden Pass joint venture and ExxonMobil holds 30 percent.

Originally built as an import facility on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Texas before the shale-gas revolution, Golden Pass will be reconfigured to export up to 15.6 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

An engineering consortium comprising McDermott and Zachry Group of the US and Japan’s Chiyoda Corp. has been awarded the contract to build the plant.

The Qatar state energy company and ExxonMobil have also been running a joint marketing company called Ocean LNG, created in 2016.

Ocean LNG is responsible for placing all of the offtake from the Golden Pass liquefaction facility.

Following a final investment decision for Golden Pass made on the 5th of February 2019, the companies have been focusing on marketing US LNG volumes in the Asia-Pacific region.

ExxonMobil has been engaged in Vietnam offshore activities for several years, though progress has been slow.

Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Vietnam Exploration and Production Corp. (PVEP) are parties to a production-sharing agreement for offshore blocks 117-119.

However, no significant progress has been made since pre-front-end engineering and design was completed in 2018 on the Ca Voi Xanh field, also known as the Blue Whale field.

ExxonMobil has said that the Blue Whale field natural gas resources are large enough to provide power for a city the size of Hanoi for more than 20 years.